EB-2 visa numbers will move fast

Everyone from India or China who is waiting for a green card number knows that the Employment based second preference visa numbers are moving very fast. And the good news is that it is predicted to move fast, at least by 6 months, for the March Visa Bulletin that will come out in the middle of February. Every Country is allocated a fixed visa number and the numbers are distributed according to categories.

The First Categories consists of PhDs with a high level of research experience. They either have “extraordinary ability” or are Outstanding Researchers. The other group consists of International Managers and Executives generally with an L-1A visa. These people are deemed to have the highest priority and are given the visa first.

The number of visas left over are given to the Second Preference, who are either Master’s degree holders, or have a Bachelors and five years of experience. Also included in this group are researchers, whose institutions just use them as slave labor and don’t petition for them. They have to prove that it is in the National Interest to waive the requirement of a labor certification. Since China and India are huge countries, and there are huge numbers of EB-1 and Eb-2, they use up their quota very quickly. Thus if you were born in India and China, and are in EB-2 you had to wait for 5 years to get the visa, as opposed to people born in other countries.

However since October of 2011, the numbers for Eb-2 for India and China had been advancing rapidly. And that movement is expected to continue for the next several months.

Mr. Oppenheim of the Visa Office of the State Department said that the rapid movement is because there is very little Eb-1 petitions filed. That is probably because EB-1 has become much harder. The standard for Extraordinary has been increased, simultaneously as the average in our country has dumbed down.

However with so many filings, the USCIS will take forever to adjudicate these petitions. The visa numbers are expected to increase for some months; if after that the numbers retrogress, then all applicants will probably not be able to get their Green cards, and have to wait. However at least the H-4 dependents can work with their EAD cards.

EB-3 however will still remain retrogressed.

Meanwhile there is no progress to the Fairness and High Skilled Immigrant Act, (HR 3012) which sought to do away with per country quotas and passed with overwhelming majority in the House. Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) and anti Indian placed a permanent hold on the bill. Senator Grassley has a Master’s degree in Arts from Iowa State Teacher’s College. I’m sure like his Republican colleague, Ted Stevens, he thinks that the internet is a “bunch of tubes” and can be programmed by humanities majors from Iowa State Teacher’s College.